Foot long socks in August

A week or so ago I finished my husband socks, Ravelry link here. My first pair ever, and I am very pleased. A couple of errors, but hey, that's okay! The main annoyance to me was the fact that because on the second sock the leg and foot were a couple of rows longer the stripes don't match up perfectly and this notices on the toe. This was purely due to me getting carried away knitting and obviously too engrossed in the trash on TV and then not wanting to undo it.


So B, my wonderful husband, here are your foot long socks. It makes me very happy to have knitted them for you, and very happy that you wear them so well. x

Sewing for Knitting

Brendan took Mil to soft play on Sunday morning and I did some sewing. It was lush. I have not done any sewing for fun for ages, it's all been big thick velvet curtains which has been a bit of a pain, and had me yelling rather a lot.

It seems I have become a knitter. And, up until now, when I take my knitting to the park/pub I wrap it up in a plastic bag. But... no longer!

I made myself a neat and tidy drawstring bag which will hold my wool and notions, and if I am knitting something small like socks, the project and needles too. The idea is that I will also make a rather larger bag which will carry my entire project when I am working on something bigger.

The bag acts as a kind of dispenser for the wool as I am knitting... and it works! Hurrah!

All very simple, but making me very happy regardless. And, the husband socks are nearly ready - update soon!

Fabric used is American Jane's 'Recess' (green and red prints) and Denyse Schmidt's 'Katie Jump Rope' (blue print).

Knitted Hand Towel

We are on a bit of an economy drive at the moment. So I am planning ahead and trying to make gifts for the very important people. My eldest brother is one of those people, and his birthday is today (and so the surprise can now be revealed!).

I had to put my sock knitting on hold for a few days while I completed this. A knitted cotton hand towel. The pattern is a free one and was sourced through Ravelry. I am loving Ravelry at the moment.

The main yarn is Patons Cotton Aran in colourway 3669, and the hanging loop is Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton in colourway 39013. You can link to my ravelry project here.

I definitely recommend this for a quick and fun knit and I am going to knit another one for somebody else. Although, I can't tell you how strange I found it going from 3mm needles to 5mm needles and back again. Very weird, felt like a giant/dwarf!

I am also coming to realise that a label is required with handmade gifts, primarily with washing instructions on. So I dragged out my very rickety typewriter and typed a little label to go with it. Justifies my keeping the thing for 10 years without using it once... I knew it would come in handy one day.

By the way, thank you for your lovely comments about my Big Granny Skirt. I have to admit to being a bit naughty and posting the pictures that showed it in its most flattering and least representative light. I can assure you... although it looks good in the pictures it looks less good in the flesh - amazing what a good angle can do! I have put it in my clothes drawer and feel that one day maybe it will somehow look wonderful. hmmm.

Big Granny Skirt

I think I just spent a long time and used up some fabric I love making what shall now be known as my 'Big Granny Skirt'.


The pattern is the yard sale wrap skirt from Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing. I bought the fabric whilst on honeymoon in North Wales. It was £4.50 for the pair of curtains in a charity shop. Oh, sorry, had you not noticed that the skirt is made of a pair of curtains?! Arrrgh. I look like a bay window!


There are a couple of issues I have with this skirt. Firstly the pattern is far too curtain-y for if not anybody, then certainly for me. I had been bolstered by seeing Janet Clare's gorgeous skirt, but I don't think I can carry it off. Also, there is a lot of fabric in this skirt, having read the errata, and comments from others who have used this pattern, I added in a few extra panels (making 8 in total). I definitely needed the extra panels, but as the fabric is heavy it all feels a bit much. I think it would work better with a lighter swooshier fabric. A quilting weight cotton would have been more appropriate. Never mind.

At least I can start making something else now.

Funnily enough, the next thing on my list is a door curtain for our living room. I seem to be going round in circles here.

Husband socks and goodbye to nappies

Since deciding that I was going to spend some more time making things for the people that live in this house, and since I now have a husband, I thought what could be more wifely than to knit the man some socks? I haven't knitted socks before, and funnily there seems to be a couple of others out there who are knitting their first socks right now also.

I am using Regia Jacquard Color 4-ply sock yarn, colourway 5275 and King Cole Sox pattern. Ravelry link to this project here.

After a couple of false starts, and a bit of YouTube study to turn the heel, I was safely on my way. I think I am going to enjoy making socks again!



And, on Friday we said goodbye to nappies, so Mil has been pantless for a while. We had a great day on Friday, and a not so great day yesterday. But I guess the only thing to nail this is time. But seeing as we were housebound, and the sun was out I got to do a bit more socking...

... and managed to finish husband sock number one! Hurrah. I am very pleased, and love the yarn. I made only one small alteration to the pattern, using a different stitch for the heel. I thought socks would be a horror, but I found the whole process very manageable.

Hooray for knitting! I love knitting!

Honeymoon

After getting married on the Saturday, we hung around to tidy up the garden at the in-laws (its official now!) which only took until lunchtime, then packed up the car and headed off on the first leg of the honeymoon.

We had taken two weeks off work and were spending a night at the Riverside Inn at Cound in Shropshire, then four nights at the Featherdown Farm at Bala in North Wales, then home for the weekend in Somerset, and then off for five nights camping at Combe View Farm near Branscombe.

The Riverside Inn was a fabulous start. I absolutely recommend this as a place to stay. At a gorgeous spot on the river Severn, the room was huge with a fab view, good pub food and very affordable.

We then went on to the Featherdown Farm. I had only heard good reviews of these holidays and we were looking forward to it very much. The idea was that we had a few days of luxury camping before our longer spell of proper camping towards the end of our break.

Like a lot of you, I feel that the blog is the place for positivity, but I can't hide that we had a very difficult time on this first bit of the trip. Most of this was nothing to do with where we were staying, and the rest was down to our error in thinking that this was the right holiday for us at this time - a suitability issue. I will explain.

We were exhausted from the wedding and the run up to the event, and really needed to be able to relax and unwind. We are big campers and I find that being outside and focusing on the moment to moment tasks of cooking and homemaking that camping necessitates makes me very calm and happy. Somehow the Featherdown Farm experience did not do this for me though. I felt in many ways that it took away from the camping experience.

What I realised about camping is that although I appreciate that things are a little more basic, I do like to have a cup of coffee and a bacon sandwich first thing, whilst watching the rest of the campsite waking up... saying hello to those that pass on their way to the water tap, or to shower. Also, after a meal there is a great pleasure to be had in trundling off to the washing up station to clean up, again perhaps passing the time of day with polite conversation with your fellow campers.

I hadn't anticipated that Featherdown would be devoid of these small pleasures. The self contained nature of the tents means that you do not have any need to walk about the site, and the wood burning stove really does take a good two hours in the morning to get enough heat to boil the kettle and fry some bacon.

It didn't help that it was very windy in the nights and the tent was flapping quite noisily which meant for a disturbed little boy and therefore some very crabby tired parents in the morning!

I think that maybe it just wasn't for us. And in hindsight we probably should have gone home to relax a bit and regroup before trying to start the honeymoon.


The location was jaw-drop gorgeous though, couldn't fault it for that.


And we had some real fun on the steam train that ran along the lake at the bottom of the hill.


Look! I got some wear out of my Baktus Scarf, and bath time was fun too...

After, a few days at home (don't you love coming home after being away!). We repacked the car to the gills and headed down to the South coast of Devon.

Five absolutely baking days on the coast at Branscombe, in our tent was glorious.

We also spent a lot of time at Beer. A place we had not been before, but that is sure to become a family favourite. Highly recommended for a day trip or a week away. A glorious pebble cove with self hire motor boats and a cafe on the beach. Fishermen bringing in their catch and a shed to buy the seafood from . The town is well stocked with good pubs and tea shops and is a real picture.

This is Beer beach on a day when the sea was eerily glassy and smooth. Like a lake and there was no waves at all... not a sound. Very strange!

Thanks for listening, and the next blog will be crafty, I promise!

Wedding

Hello All, sorry for being so AWOL for such a long time! Brendan and I have been adjusting to life without a wedding to plan! Before I get onto some crafty posting, I thought I had better do a quick recap of the wedding and honeymoon... so, wedding first.


We got married in Cambridge Registry Office and had our party in Brendan's parents back garden. Above is a picture of the garden before we invaded it, and below you can see the bunting and marquee going up. Hurrah! The bunting was a great success, and (dare I say it) much admired.


Brendan's brother Dan made us a bar. We had asked him to do this, but had no idea it was going to be so brilliant... here is a picture of him standing behind it.


The day itself was glorious sunshine, and what with all this rain we are having now, we couldn't have been luckier... it really made the day super-special. here is one of me before the ceremony - looking a bit nervous, and I was... absolutely terrified I was clammy and shaky throughout the whole thing!


Glad to have Brendan by my side though. This is us waiting for the ceremony to start:


And, saying our vows... the registrar did a bit of a comedy slip up and welcomed everyone 'to be present for the marriage of Alice and Brenda'! That got a bit of a laugh!

Then all back to the house for a party. The food was fantastic, cooked by a friend.

We had two photo walls, one with pictures of Brendan and I through our relationship (above), mainly self portraits taken with Brendan's long arm, and a Polaroid wall (below) for people to take their own picture and stick it up above their name. It had a dual purpose - for identification and so that we could guarantee we would have a picture of every person there that day.





We had a nice man with a guitar come and sing with the kids (above), and loads of games of ping pong (below).




Then, there was a whole lot of dancing, and a bit of limbo...

All in all it was a perfect day. Surrounded by much loved friends and family, and it whooshed by in one big self-indulgent blur. Best of all though is we are now married, and loving every minute of it.

More photos can be seen on my Flickr.